•The Support Breast Cancer Research Cause has more than 730,000 members and has raised more than $20,000. The recipient, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, didn’t learn of the campaign until it received a $12,000 in the mail. The creator of the Cause started other Causes on the same day– this one took off, the others, also health related, did not. Why?

•Causes builds on FB’s “atmosphere of truthfulness…people are treating FB as an extension of their real life.”

•Why FB works: people want to be validated and feel good about themselves. Prior to Causes, a group, such as Save Darfur, could reach hundreds of thousands and becomes a trend, but the Save Darfur Coalition had no way to reach out to them.

In FB, “reaching critical mass is so important;” a large community is needed in order to figure out what works.

•“We come at it from a very naïve perspective;” want to see Cuases grow into off line engagement

•Not everyone is ready to become a hard core activist; some of us still need bridging moments. Personal connection can be a bridge, a “gateway drug into progressive politics.”

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•Robert Putnam said little about the internet in Bowling Along; we can now say that the net is not TV, it is not the villain. “It may not be the hero, but it is trending positively.”

•I prefer face to face, but there are real communities that only exist online.

The panel chair, Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake, closed with a comment that seems to be emerging as a theme: “Last year we were struggling to be seen– I just got an email from reproter at MSNBC asking me to link to his blog.”